49th most important cycling blog in the world!

The Bicycle Film Festival, of which Moving Target and London’s bicycle couriers are confirmed fans, rolls back into town next month. Once again at the Barbican, and once again featuring shorts, features, documentaries, rides of fantasy, sports, life, the cycling universe and everthing in it. It’s well worth catching as many screenings as possible, as there will always be at least one film that makes you go, ‘wow, that is so cool/funny/moving’. Below is my own personal skim of the program.

Fun Bike Shorts, Saturday 1500, looks, well, fun, and interesting. A short about the Toronto Ice Race, King of the Ice, catches my fancy particularly for a few reasons. First, it’s about the TO bike scene, which, despite its faults (principally: serial infighting), is a cauldron which has cooked up many spicy cycling dishes, including the Alleycat phenomenon, two editions of the Cycle Messenger World Championships, the North American Cycle Courier Championships & the Human Powered Rollercoaster, which event was inspired by the early runnings of the Ice Race. The Ice Race used to take place on Lake Ontario, in a figure of 8, but latterly, due to lack of stable winter ice on the lake, has been held on iced land. In the same screening, there’s a short about a cycling topic close to my heart, cargo bikes, Less Car, More Go (I like what they did there, don’t you?)

On Thursday, departing from the ‘showing films featuring cycling’ theme, the BFF is co-hosting with TfL a ‘Conference & Debate on London Cycling’, apparently featuring presentations and panel discussions. There aren’t many details available, except that it’s from 1pm – 4pm at the Barbican, that I will be participating in one of the panel discussions, and if you want to go you should email the conference organisers by clicking this link.